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Over the past decade Ubisoft has provided and continues to provide many excellent games under the Tom Clancy banner. Whenever a new game is announced for this well known stable of titles, gamers tend to take notice. Last year we saw Tom Clancy's Endwar, the voice command RTS from Ubisoft Romania which was rather well recieved for a console RTS. Now Ubisoft have created a game to take gamers to heights with maps modeled on real world satellite data with their new game Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X. (High-Altitude Warfare Experimental Squadron) This new IP places you into the skies flying and fighting well known combat jets from around the globe.

The first thing anyone need to consider before buying H.A.W.X is that it is not a combat flight simulation. For each mission you will begin and end your mission in the skies, no need to worry about take offs or landings. You also don't need to worry about fuel usage, blackouts, weapon jamming (on the plane itself, other types of external jamming will be discussed later) or even specific particle damage to components on your plane. So if you are looking for an arcade flyer/fighter you are definitely looking at the correct game, those after a sim only will not find what they are after in H.A.W.X.

Just because H.A.W.X is an arcade flight game does not mean there isn't fun to be had. With over 50 different plane types on offer, each with the choice of up to 3 different weapon load outs, much time will be spent sampling the different planes on offer. The planes all have different statistics and will hence all handle differently, however the differences are not always obvious. Whilst in normal control mode it is hard to notice any handling difference at all, however when using expert controls (assistance off mode) it is highly noticeable when trying to drift your plane. Only here is it that handling capabilities are fully realised. The award for most obvious difference from one plane to another is the speed they are capable of; for example the AV-8B Harrier II just cannot match the speed F-22 Raptor. Whilst this does not present a bit issue in single player modes, or even in dog fights, it can be grating in co-op modes as your partner races to take out all the targets first. The only issue in relation to speed is speed itself. The game holds a steady frame rate, there is no sense or thrill of speed and it just doesn't feel like you are flying faster than the speed of sound.

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